This was a pool swim seeded by swim predictions. I registered for this race about 3 months ago and estimated my swim time at 8:00. Well, last week, I did the 300 yds in 6:30 at a fairly easy pace, so I knew I'd have to wait on some people.

I jumped in and started at an easy pace. As I thought, I caught up rather quickly to the person in front of me and made a pass on the second length. I continued at a fairly easy pace picking it up as I passed others. Overall, I passed 6-8 people and was passed by 1. I also spent some time treading and in a real slow breaststroke waiting for a good time to pass. I felt that I could have done this sub 6:00 if I had predicted my time appropriately.

Give a more accuate swim time.

I had decided pre-race that I was going to take my sweet time in the transitions and soak it all in.

I pretty much completely dried off, put on a shirt, HR chest strap, sun tan lotion, shoes, socks. Then I grabbed my sunglasses and strapped on my helmet.

Nothing. I believe this method kept me completely relaxed through T1.

The bike was my most feared leg. Almost all of my training was on a stationary bike at an aerobic pace, none of which equalled 14 miles. When I did ride on the road, it was completly anaerobic as I had a hard time taking it easy and only 1 ride was more than 10 miles..

The course had some rolling hills, none of which did I think were too difficult. This was good since I had not done any hills in training. I was pretty much anerobic through the entire ride with my HR > 180 (my max is 202). It was tough getting through the first 4 miles and I thought I was going to be killed for the run. At this point, I've completely put my ultimate goal of a 1:30 finish out of my mind. At about mile 5, my shoe strings got caught in my chain. You'd think with all the time I spent in T1, I would have remembered to tuck my laces in my shoe. Oh, well, off to the side of the road and tie my shoe and tuck in the laces. Back on the road again. After about mile 6, I found a groove and the rest of the bike seemed to fly by. It may have been mostly downhill, I dunno. I just felt a whole lot better. I don't remember looking at my Forerunner (GPS) at all and never heard the 1/2 mi "beeping" I had set it for. I would tuck in downhills and not pedal at all saving myself for the rest of the ride. This seemed to work well for me and I don't think I lost too much time with this approach. In fact, this allowed me to pass a few people on the successive hills.

Make sure my laces are tucked in my shoes.

I ended up doing a lap around the transition area. Don't know if I was supposed to or not??

Of all the legs, I felt most comfortable about the run. My normal week had me running 3 days with mileage 4/5/6, so the distance was no problem.

The first 1/3 mile was a killer. I started at a crazy (for me) 7:30 - 8:00 pace and quickly got a pain on my left side which went into my left shoulder (I minorly injured my shoulder about 1 month ago and it did not "go away"). It didn't feel like a side stitch as most of the pain was in my shoulder. I quickly found a runner to run with for a little while that slowed me down. After about 1/2 mile (and a hill), I felt good and settled into about a 9:30 pace. I pretty much kept this pace throughout. This suprised me a bit since all of my training runs were in the 11:30 pace range and those were without a prior swim and 14mi bike ride :)

I was approaching the end and kicked it up a bit to about an 8:00 min pace at what I thought was with a 1/4 mi to go. I was feeling real good at this point and was passing many. Then, I noticed that we had to run a little bit of a loop that added another bit to the run so I slowed a bit and really didn't know how much was left. I rounded a turn and immediately saw the finish. I had enough left in me to sprint the last 100 yards.

Transitions and cycle training.


Prior to March, I couldn't run 1/2 mile, bike 1 mile > 15 mph, or swim more than 25 yards freestyle.

I started running in March, cycling in May, and swimming in June.

My goals for this race were:
1) Finish better than 1:45 (and optimistically 1:30)
2) Freestyle the swim and run the entire run
3) Not get passed by a mtn bike
4) Take my time in the transitions and "soak it all in"

I met each goal and exceeded even my optimistic time.